Moscow

Ranking among the largest urban areas in the world, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia. It is named for the Moskva River on which it stands It is also the world’s most expensive city as of 2008 so it is somewhat appropriate that it is home to one of the greatest numbers of billionaires in the world.

Moscow has had a turbulent history since the first time that it was referenced in Russian literature in 1147 by Yuri Dolgoruki through to nine years later when he ordered wooden walls be built round the emerging city, and then in 1237-38 when it was sacked by the Mongols.

"By 1327 it became the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality exploiting its position on the headwaters of the Volga River becoming in time the prosperous Grand Duchy of Moscow."